Category: Farm Life
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Meet Sofia, Our New Guard Dog Puppy
It’s time for us to get another guard dog puppy. We need to raise and train dogs relatively frequently to be sure we have enough to guard our sheep. This time, we’ve selected a Karakachan puppy. We’re eagerly awaiting Hopping Acres Sofia’s arrival! Continue reading
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Yard Sale
We’re cleaning out a bunch of stuff, so I’ve decided to give away and sell some of it. Nothing will be shipped – you must be able to come pick up your things at our farm in Paonia on Garvin Mesa. Some things are already gone, and I’ll be adding more later. Free stuff For… Continue reading
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Chicken Butcher Day
This past Saturday was chicken butcher day. We rented a trailer and hired additional help to process all of our birds. It went very well. We scalded the chickens first, then plucked them. Next, we went inside for gutting, chilling, and finally, packaging. We also hosted another person who had about 25 of their own… Continue reading
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New Chicken Feeders
We’ve been looking for a better way to put food and oyster shell in the chicken tractor. Our existing feeders don’t do well, and dishes waste a lot of feed as the chickens scratch it out. I looked at a number of online DIY PVC pipe feeders, and here are the results. It’s a relatively… Continue reading
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Guests Visiting, Sheep, and Chickens on Summer Days
We had a lovely visit from our friend Alan. He’s a much better photographer than I am, so I’ve included a few of his shots here. All of his photos are from his Flickr and are shared under Creative Commons. Continue reading
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Moving Sheep
We are well into our managed grazing segment of the year. Currently, we’re running four separate groups of sheep: ewes with lambs, pregnant ewes, yearling ewes, and all of the rams. The yearlings are being used as lawnmowers all around the house. The pregnant ewes are being moved behind the house so they’re close at… Continue reading
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Meat Chickens
Every year, we raise one batch of meat chickens for us and a few select customers who order them in advance. This year is no exception. We get just-hatched Label Rouge birds from a local hatchery. They are in our chicken barn and doing well. Continue reading
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Lambing Continues
We are still lambing. So far, only eight ewes have lambed, and we have ten live lambs. We did lose an ewe and her twins to a really bad dystocia, but those are the only losses we’ve sustained so far. Our AI girls are looking like they’ll pop if they move too fast. We’re expecting… Continue reading
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Lambing
We actually started lambing yesterday, but today was when I got some pictures. This was a large ram lamb – over eight pounds – that was upside down. He had to be turned before he could come out. Mom and lamb are both fine now. Continue reading
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Finally, Shorn Sheep on Pasture
We finally got all the sheep shorn, and the pregnant ewes are now out on pasture. Just in time! Lambing is due to start on April 25th. Continue reading